Un gars, une fille

Un gars, une fille
Un gars, une fille logo, original version.
Created by	Guy A. Lepage
Starring	Guy A. Lepage Sylvie Léonard
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	French
Production
Producer(s)	Jean Bissonnette Jean-Claude Lespérance Luc Wiseman
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	26 minutes
Release
Original network	Radio-Canada
Original release	1997 – 2003
External links
Website

Un gars, une fille (French pronunciation: ​[œ̃ ɡɑ yn fij], A Guy, A Girl) is the title of a Quebec comedy television series created by Guy A. Lepage and broadcast on Radio-Canada, as well as the title of its French adaptation on France 2. It is one of the most successful Quebec television shows, with a concept exported to more than thirty markets around the world.^[1] It is the first Québécois television programme to be adapted in the United States (see below).

Overview

A typical episode features several vignettes of the everyday life of a couple, with the camera mostly centered on them. Often other characters are cropped, giving the programme its unique visual style. The couple receive friends for supper, go to the convenience store, or leave on a trip, and sometimes get on each other's nerves. Their quirks, and loving bickering, provide much of the program's humor. The graphic design style associated with the original Un gars, une fille, which consists of a palette of pastel blue and pink, and rough lines and scribbles, (seen in the transition graphics, see Original section), as well as a logo with simulated printing mistakes and smears, has been imitated by most of the other versions, with the notable exception of the American version. The character names are often those of the actors, as in the first version.

Original

The concept of Un gars, une fille began in the 1990s as a series of short segments featured on Besoin d'amour, a TQS network daily talk-show, hosted by Guy A. Lepage that ran from 1995 to 1996. Lepage, a veteran of the renowned comedy troupe Rock et Belles Oreilles (RBO), played one half of the couple along with Sylvie Léonard. The duo reprised their roles in what became Un gars une fille in 1997, a successful weekly 26-minute programme which spawned many adaptations. It was celebrated numerous times at awards presentations, notably winning the Gémeaux, Félix, and MetroStar Awards. It was also nominated twice at the American Emmy Awards. Produced by Avanti Ciné Vidéo, the show aired from 1997 to 2003 in its initial run, and continued in reruns afterward. 130 episodes were produced, which included about 4,000 scenes.^[2] The script writing team included RBO members André Ducharme and Bruno Landry, as well as Sylvie Léonard herself. Yves P. Pelletier, also from RBO, has been featured onscreen. After the series concluded in 2003, Lepage went on to produce and host the hugely successful Tout le monde en parle, adapted from the eponymous French hit talk-show.

A typical visual style of many adaptations: a medium shot of the couple facing cropped-out secondary characters.

A standard episode is presented in three acts, each of which is split into five to seven scenes. Flashy pastel blue and pink graphics with squiggly lines follow punchlines and mark transitions, coupled with an upbeat percussive tune, and often a spoken Voice-over phrase summing up the previous segment. Appropriately, the show's publicity, and early video release covers, are often recognisable by the presence of those pastel blue and pink colors and askew lines, mimicking the graphics that separate the programme's scenes; traditionally, the colour blue is associated with boys and pink with girls.

The two main characters, "Guy et Sylvie", are named after the actors who play them. Guy likes to tease Sylvie on a variety of subjects, and hates her mother. His father is remarried to a young, good-looking stripper, Mélanie, played by Mahée Paiement, and had a child with her. The attention the child receives makes Guy jealous, his father having spent little time with him when he was a child. Unlike Guy, Sylvie dreams of having a baby. She is jealous of Geneviève, Guy's sexy, and promiscuous, office colleague with whom he had a one-time affair years ago. She is also obsessed with cleanliness and resents Guy for being untidy. A curious running gag from the show involves Guy surprising Sylvie by grabbing her breasts from behind while shouting "Road Runner!", followed by the cartoon character's emblematic honking "beeb beeb" sound. While she ostensibly loves it, she pretended the exact opposite when it was obliquely brought up by Guy in front of her mother.^[3] This joke was developed on the set by the two actors.^[4] The last season saw notable developments: a marriage, and a trip to Vietnam to adopt a little girl.

Adaptations

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian version, known as Тя и той (She and He) aired from 2002 to 2005 on bTV. In 2007, the show moved to Foxlife and the fourth season began airing. The show was cancelled after the final (25th) episode of the season, ending with a cliffhanger. 96 episodes were produced during the show's Bulgarian run. Since then reruns are airing on Foxlife and bTV Comedy. Stefaniya Koleva stars as Sylvia, and Julian Vergov plays Martin.

Canada (English version)

The rights for an English Canadian adaptation are held by the producer of the original show Luc Wiseman of Avanti Ciné-Vidéo television production company. The main English Canadian networks CBC, CTV, and Global Television were not interested in the concept. Wiseman stated: "They were saying that it was not for the Canadian market, that it was too audacious". With the title A Guy & A Girl, it ended up airing on Women's Television Network (WTN), (now known as the W Network), a cable television specialty channel, and lasted for two seasons.^[5] Jeff Clarke played Mike, and Kate Ashby was Susy.

Cyprus

Εγώ κι εσύ (Me and You) began airing in October 2010 on CyBC1, the Cyprus' public broadcaster's main television channel, and on the CyBC Video on Demand platform, in the format of one 35-minute episode each week. Following the original concept, it kept the actors' actual names: Marios is the guy (played by Marios Mettis) and Niovi is the girl (played by Niovi Haralambus). In the other half of the season Fotis is the guy (played by Fotis Georgidis) and Danae is the girl (played by Danae Christou).

France

The characteristic unstable line and smudge graphics at the beginning and end of the show, and in the middle of two scenes.

Also called Un gars, une fille, the version adapted for French television, began broadcasting on October 11, 1999. After a rocky start, it went on to become a success and garnered around 5 million viewers each day, or a third of the people watching television during that time slot.^[6] (These figures are from the footnoted article; the official website claims an average of almost 7 million viewers). Its format was 7-minute-long episodes, shown daily, which is more common in France than the 26-minute episodes, shown weekly, in Canada. (Conversely, the French television show Caméra Café was expanded from nine to thirty minutes for the Québec market). These were supplemented by two 26-minute television specials during the holidays of 2001. The Christmas special garnered a 27.4% market share (approximately 6 million people); the New Year's special 25%.^[7]

The French show stars Jean Dujardin (best actor Oscar winner for The Artist) ^[8]) as Jean and Alexandra Lamy as Alex; like the original programme, the characters' first names are those of the actors. This version introduced pet names for the lovers: "Loulou" for the guy and "Chouchou" for the girl.( "Loulou" happens to be the name Sylvie, the "girl" in the original version, calls one of her friends.) After three years of portraying Alex and Jean on screen, the actors blended fact with fiction when they left their respective significant others and married in autumn 2003. The programme won a Sept d'or award for best entertainment show in 2001 and concluded in 2003 when Dujardin and Lamy left the series. Un gars, Une fille contains 486 episodes with 4,500 sketches.

Greece

Σ'αγαπω Μ'αγαπας (S'agapo M'agapas (I love you, You love me)) began broadcasting in Greece in 1999. Its format is weekly, 26-minute episodes, much like the original. Thodoris Atheridis plays Thodoris, the guy, and Dimitra Papadopoulou plays Dimitra, the girl, replicating the original version's concept of using the actors' first names for the characters.

Hungary

The Hungarian version of Un gars, une fille was called Szeret, nem szeret. It began airing in 2002 on TV2. According to IMDB, the format is 7-minute segments, much like in France. The guy is Brúnó, played by Szabó Győző and the girl is Brigi, played by Oroszlán Szonja.

Italy

The first Italian version of the programme was called Love Bugs, which is the international marketing name of Un gars, une fille. It ran on Italia 1 from 2004 to 2005 with the couple played by comedian Fabio De Luigi (already well known for his collaboration with Gialappa's Band) and Michelle Hunziker, a veteran of Zelig Circus. A second season, Love Bugs 2 aired from 2005 to 2006 with Elisabetta Canalis replacing Hunziker. The characters' names in both series are those of the actors, in the fashion of the original show. In the third season in 2007, Love Bugs 3, the couple was played by Emilio Solfrizzi and Giorgia Surina (MTV's Veejay). Because of low ratings, Love Bugs 3 was cancelled. Nevertheless, approximately 50 episodes of the third season were filmed and broadcast, much the same as the previous two seasons.

Macedonia

The Macedonian version of "Un gars, une fille" is known under the name of Сашо и Сашка (Sasho & Sashka). It stars Biljana Dragicevik-Projkovska as Sashka, the girl, and Zoran Ljutkov as Sasho, the guy. It was broadcast in 2005-2006 on Macedonian Radio Television .

Poland

In Poland, Kasia i Tomek began broadcast on September 3, 2002 on the TVN network. The title refers to the first names of the characters, the Polish equivalents of the English "Kate" and "Tom". It starred Joanna Brodzik as Kasia, the girl, and Paweł Wilczak as Tomek, the guy. It won two Telekamery awards in 2002: one for best comedy series and one for Brodzik for best actress. There were 100 episodes divided into 3 seasons.

Portugal

The version broadcast in Portugal began in 1999 and was called Entre Marido e Mulher ("Between Husband and Wife"). The format was weekly 26-minute episodes, like the Canadian original.

Russia

In Russia a version of the showed aired on TNT channel starting 2003 under the title Sasha + Masha (Russian: "Саша + Маша"). 125 episodes were filmed between 2003 and 2005. The show became a hit and remains popular, as of 2009.^[9] The lead actors are Elena Biryukova (Елена Бирюкова) and Georgiy Dronov (Георгий Дронов).

Spain

Spain's version of the programme is called El y Ella ("He and She"), with a format similar to France with 7-minute shows each day. It began in broadcasting in 2000. As with the original, the actors' first names were used for the main characters: Josep Julien is Pep while Cristina Solá is Cristina. ("Pep" is a pet name for Josep.)

Serbia

In Serbia and Montenegro, Andrija i Anđelka began broadcasting on October 5, 2015 on the Prva network and in Croatia on the RTL on January 15, 2016 . The title refers to the first names of the characters. It stars Anđelka Prpić as the girl and Andrija Milošević as the guy.Serie has two seasons.The first season aired from 5th october 2015 to 31st december 2015 and had 64 episodes.The Second season aired from 29th february 2016 to 13th june 2016 and shown episodes from 65 to148.The second season episodes 148-156 is shown from 7th october 2016 to 28th october 2016.That is the last episodes of serie.

Slovenia

In Slovenia, channel Planet TV started broadcasting the first season of the series on 6 March 2016. It airs from Monday to Friday and on Sundays. The Slovenian version of the series is called Da, dragi! Da, draga!. The main two characters are portrayed by Lotos Vincenc Šparovec and Gorka Berden. The director of the sitcom is Ven Jemeršić.

Turkey

In Turkey the series is called 1 Kadın 1 Erkek ("One Woman One Man") featuring Demet Evgar and Emre Karayel. The first season finished in June 2009 with 36 episodes that were aired on the TurkMax channel during Thursday prime-time, with each episode running approximately 27 to 28 minutes in length. Despite the series airing on a specialty channel, on a satellite network - Digiturk - that requires a subscription, its popularity among young viewers is increasing steadily thanks to viral marketing and the sharing of clips on YouTube and Facebook. On January 2012 the show was renamed 1 Erkek 1 Kadın ("One Man One Woman") and new episodes aired on Star TV

Ukraine

The Ukrainian version of Un gars, une fille called Lesya + Roma (Леся + Рома) began broadcasting in 2005 on ICTV. Starring Irma Vitovska as Les′a, the girl, and Dmytro Lalenkov as Roma, the guy. It is the first comedy show to be produced in the Ukrainian language.^[10] It airs on weekdays, with an average rating of 2 million viewers.^[11]

United States

Entitled Lovebites, the American version began broadcasting on September 13, 2006 with comedian Paul Reiser as executive producer and writer.^[12] It was co-produced by Stuart McLean (founder of Content & Company) at JWT, the world's fourth largest advertising agency.^[13] While the original format was 26 minutes, the American version consisted of a season of 82 episodes of two and a half minutes each (which was not part of the original contract, see below). 65 should be seen on television while 17 will be available for computers and cell phones.^[5] It aired on the TBS cable television network on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays sometime in the slot between 11:00 pm and midnight, and on Friday morning in the slot between 9:00 am and 10:00 am.^[14] Lovebites stars David Julian Hirsh (a native of Montreal, Quebec, seen in CSI: NY and Naked Josh) and Lauren Bittner (seen in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Third Watch). The characters, called Max and Katie, are about 25 years old, younger than the original Guy and Sylvie. Another notable difference with the original version is that the couple in Lovebites breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the camera.

Lovebites was the first time a Québécois TV concept was adapted for an American audience (Louis 19, le roi des ondes, a movie, had already been remade as EdTV). Reiser is said to have been captivated by the series when it was presented to him by Michel Rodrigue, president of Distraction Formats, the Montreal-based international distribution company for Un gars, une fille.^[15] Rodrigue said: "The selling process has been long and complicated. It has been a very long time that we have been working on it".^[5] Creator Guy A. Lepage said that he thought the chemistry worked well between the two main actors.^[5] Nevertheless, he has stated his disappointment with the finished product, giving it a "2 out of 10". In his opinion, the problem did not lie with the acting, but with the length of the show (two and a half minutes long, as mentioned above), the sponsor, the broadcasting and the assembling. He summed it up by saying: "It's media concentration to the power of 1,000, like a super big TVA".^[16] (TVA is part of Pierre Karl Péladeau's Quebecor media conglomerate.) Sunsilk, a shampoo brand of Unilever's, was the main sponsor of Lovebites. As of 2006, Canadian and American producers are still caught up in a legal dispute, notably about the aforementioned short length. The initial contract planned a guaranteed minimum of seven minutes per episode.^[17]

Others

The concept of Un gars, une fille was also sold to producers in: Algeria, Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and many others, totalling more than thirty countries. Not all of these rights sales have resulted in a programme being produced.

See also

• List of Quebec television series imports and exports
• List of Quebec television series
• Television of Quebec
• Culture of Quebec
• List of French television series
• Culture of France

References

External links

• Un gars, une fille at the Internet Movie Database

Official

• Official website of the Quebec version
• Official website of the American adaptation
• Official website of the French adaptation
• Official website of the Italian adaptation
• Official website of the Polish adaptation
• Official website of the Turkish adaptation

Videos

• Promotional video for international distribution featuring the Quebec version and various adaptations
• Video of the French adaptation
• Video of the Greek adaptation
• Video of the Polish adaptation
• Video of the Turkish adaptation